On June 27-28, 2018, the World Bank's "States of Disruption" Conference brought together thought leaders and practitioners across several thematic areas to explore the ideas shaping governance in the 21st century today.

Many countries have an opportunity to digitally transform public procurement systems to achieve enhanced efficiency, accountability, transparency, and participation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Digitally transforming public procurement would also accelerate national development objectives, such as enhancing public service delivery, developing human capital and the private sector, and gender empowerment.

There is no denying that governments across the world today are facing increasingly complex pressures that are altering the world in which we live – fragility, conflict and violence; large migration flows; the amplifying impact of technology; tensions in managing scarce resources; and more complicated service provision needs. These pressures are re-defining the relationship between citizens and the state and leaving many asking what the role of government in the 21st century should be.

The challenge with procuring a high volume of low-value goods is keeping the transaction costs down while still delivering the value-for-money trifecta: low cost, at the required quality, and on time. Alibaba, Amazon, eBay and many other online platforms do this for sellers by setting up a “honey pot” market place that attracts buyers and then largely automates the rest of the procurement, delivery and feedback processes. An e-marketplace can help make the agricultural sector more efficient in Pakistan.

Blog reader: “Dan! The government is one big system. Why didn’t your blog on the latest research on the quality of governance take this into account?”
Dan (Rogger): “Well, typically frontier papers in the field don’t frame their work as ‘modeling the system’ [which do?] However, Martin Williams at the Blavatnik School of Government hosted a conference last week on ‘Systems of Public Service Delivery in Developing Countries’ that directly aims to discuss how research can take into account the systemic elements of governance.